How Nerds Named the First Space Shuttle

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The naming of the space shuttle Enterprise involves one of the
funniest presidential orders of all time.

Enterprise, the first
space shuttle orbiter, was originally to be named
Constitution, in honor of the Constitution of the United States.
However, "Star Trek" fans started a write-in campaign urging the
White House to instead select the name of the starship that James
T. Kirk captained in the original TV series. Although President
Gerald Ford did not mention the campaign, he directed NASA
officials to change the name, saying he was "partial to the name"
Enterprise.

In recognition of their namesake, " Star
Trek " creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast
of the original series were on hand when the shuttle Enterprise
was rolled out of Rockwell's Air Force Plant 42, Site 1,
Palmdale, Calif., assembly facility on Sept. 17, 1976.

Enterprise was built for NASA to perform test flights in the
atmosphere; lacking engines or a functional heat shield, it was
not capable of actual spaceflight. NASA planned to eventually
outfit Enterprise for spaceflight and to make it the second space
shuttle to fly, after Columbia, but final design plans for the
fuselage and wings of the orbiters changed during the
construction of Columbia, and refitting Enterprise in accordance
with the new plans would have required significant effort: Entire
sections would have to be dismantled and shipped across the
country to subcontractors. Instead it was deemed less expensive
to
build the space shuttle Challenger from existing materials.

Once NASA completed its critical tests of Enterprise, the
shuttle was retired from flight and partially stripped of
certain components for use on other orbiters. It then went on an
international tour, and in 1985 it was transported to Washington,
D.C., where it was brought into the Smithsonian Institution's
hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport for
restoration. It was then installed at the National Air and Space
Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at the airport, where it was
the museum's centerpiece until it was replaced by the
space shuttle Discovery on April 19, 2012.